Liquid crystal display devices are space-saving image display devices with lower power consumptions, whereby the use thereof have been increasing year by year. The liquid crystal display devices had a major disadvantage of large viewing angle dependencies. However, a wide viewing angle liquid crystal display device of a VA mode has been put into practical use in recent years, so that demand for the liquid crystal display devices is expanding rapidly even in the field of television, etc. needing high-quality images.
Though the VA mode liquid crystal display devices advantageously have higher contrast as compared with devices using the other modes, they are disadvantageous in that the contrast and color are largely changed due to the viewing angle. In view of the disadvantage, for example, disclosed in WO 2003/032060, etc. are methods of using 2 retardation layers having different optical properties to obtain a VA mode liquid crystal display device such that a sharp achromatic black can be observed even from an oblique direction.
However, the above methods require a process of bonding the retardation films after production of a polarizing plate. Thus, the methods are disadvantageous in complicated production processes, low productivity, and high production costs, and the improvement of the disadvantages has been demanded.